VIDEO Debussy arabesque

[costicina]

Here is my 12 yrs old daughter's first attempt to perform this piece. It's still a work in progress (and the audio is not very good)..So any advice, suggestion, criticism will be, as always, most welcomed.
Thanks so much in advance
Margherita

[pianowolfi]

I think that your daughter does principally well, and that this piece is for sure something she can handle. I'd suggest to work a lot on legato and phrasing. Of course this is easily said, and without having a real life lesson with your daughter it's almost impossible to explain how, where, what and when. There are also some rhythmical issues, but those can be easily fixed.

There are two things that mainly stand out to me: 1.she tends to sink into the single notes, especially into longer ones, as if there's a lot of gravity in her touch instead of floating/flowing from one note to the next, and executing the whole phrase! And 2. at least in this video it seems that her wrist is in general too high, which seems quite a bit awkward to me.

[costicina]

Thank you so much, Pianowolfi, for your precious remarks!!!

This Arabesque is still a work in progress, a piece my daughter learned  during her summer vacation -- very long here in Italy -- when  piano practicing was the last of her priorities. This can explain, I think, so many flaws.  Luckily, she grasped immediately the polyrithmic  structure, so I hope we’ll be able to fix many weak points in this field.

As for the “sinking” into the single notes, I’m afraid it’s in part my fault. I submitted her countless renditions of this piece: that  has helped her  a lot to understand, e.g.,  the melody line in bars 3-5,  but the idiosyncratic performances  of great pianists could have somehow distorted her basic understanding of the piece’s essential structure.

As for the bad habit of keeping her  wrists too high, I’m well aware of it, and I’ll do  my best to correct it.

I’m so deeply grateful for the attention, the time and the patience you dedicated to us, and above all, for the constructive  HELP  you gave us (the very thing I was looking for when I subscribed to this  forum).
Thank you again and again
Margherita

[kellyc]

Hi Margherita. Might I ask how long your daughter has been taking lessons? My first thought on listening to this recording is how she gets all the notes right, and how dis jointed the many phrases sound. Each one phrase by itself sounds fine, but the connection between them just doesn't work all that well. So it would seem to me that it would be wise to spend some time joining these different phrases to each other. Im not talking about playing fast, but rather making musical sentences rather than just having individual musical words. Oh I did hear her play the Schubert impromptu and it made me smile. It was one of my earliest pieces that I truly enjoyed. I simply love Schubert. Now back to your daughter since I assume it was you playing the Rachmaninoff ( which I was very impressed with) you and her should do a serious duet of some kind if you haven't done so already.  I would recommend The Mozart Sonata in D 4 four hands. I think it would help her playing, plus it would be a great bond between the two of you.

And with that I think I have said enough.  Here is to mother and daughter making wonderful music together.

Kelly

[costicina]

Thank you, Kelly, for your kind words!

Your observations about my daughter’s Arabesque are perfectly right. The ‘disconnection’ you noticed can be due to the fact that she practiced the piece in sections, and in a very discontinuous way, during her summer vacations: she likes this Debussy, but I had a hell of a time to make her sit at the bench!!!

Costanza started her piano lessons from scratch less than three years ago, without a ‘real’, professional teacher. So the very problem, I think,   is her lack of a consistent and complete musical education. I’m clearly not the guidance she needs, being myself a semi-self taught restarter… 
We tried sometimes to play some simple 4 hands pieces (Diabelli). She seemed to enjoy the experience, so  your suggestion to follow this path  is a brilliant idea. Maybe it will really help  the not always smooth relationship mother/ teacher and daughter/pupil…

Thanks a lot again, Kelly
Margherita